Wednesday, September 21, 2016

New school improvement agency plans first public events | EdSource

The new state agency charged with overseeing school improvement in the era of local control will hold its first public events — all-day workshops in eight across the state — in early November.

The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence will focus on how school districts can use the data from the state’s new school accountability system to guide school and district improvement, said Joshua Daniels, director of outreach and communications for the agency and a school board member from the Berkeley Unified School District.

The State Board of Education passed the system earlier this month, and early next year, schools and districts will get their first look at their new data-filled report cards, with results of multiple indicators of school climate and student achievement, including measures of career and college readiness, test scores and suspension rates. The question for districts will be: “What then?”

RELATED

Districts are already required to consult with parents and teachers to create and annually update a plan for how they will use state funding to improve student performance. It’s called a Local Control and Accountability Plan, and districts will write their second version, which will cover three years, in the spring of 2017. The goal should be to use the results of the report cards to set improvement goals and make spending decisions in the LCAP, particularly as they affect low-performing student subgroups, Daniels said.

The new report cards, technically called evaluation rubrics, will have links to best practices statewide. So, for example, if statewide data flag a district’s or specific school’s high suspension rate for Latino middle school students or a high percentage of low-income students with poor test results on Common Core math, parents and district board members can use the suggestions as guides for targeting resources and interventions in their LCAPs.

CCEE’S MISSION

The Legislature created the agency in 2013, creating as law the Local Control Funding Formula. Daniels is one of a handful of employees reporting to a five-member board of directors, appointed by the governor, the superintendent of public instruction, the state board and leaders of the Legislature.